What most people think of as Self-defense, the physical skills, is what happens when everything else went bad.
I’d much rather prevent things from ever reaching that stage.
I want to help you develop a lifestyle that offers you maximum self protection.
It’s all about giving you assurance.
Size, age and physical limitations should not be an issue in learning to protect yourself.
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Sunday, February 27, 2011

I have been working on shodo (Japanese calligraphy/ kanji). A challenging task for one who is not schooled in that fine art. Coming from a point a view of standard Roman alphabet where an “A” has to look like an “A” and a “V” like a “V”, I was very much concentrating in reproducing the kanji step by step and line by line. It was a bit frustrating to say the least.

Then I started to look at some shodo done by Morihei Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido). I noticed that they were very different than the standard shodo I was working so hard at copying. Studying it closer I notice that really everything was there but it was expressed in a very personal manner.Ueshiba, in his own style was expressing himself, and beautifully I might add. I realize I am showing my ignorance here as I always thought of shodo as very prescriptive when it truly is meant to be an expression or understanding of the basic principles of the kanji. I took a step back to look at the kanji as a whole instead of broken down parts. When I finally figured this out a light bulb went on in my head

This truly freed me to draw the kanji’s. It became fun instead of frustrating. I was looking at the symbol, it’s meaning then I could interpret it my own way, with the tools I had available to me.

This is very like Ueshiba performing Aikido in his later years . He truly understood fundamentals and the basic concepts that made techniques work. He worked hard in his earlier years at understanding and drilling those principles and building on good habits, good foundations. He was able to improvise, interpret the techniques the way it needed to be utilized at the time, in its purest most practical form. To watch him do so it looks effortless. If you pay attention you can see that all the strong key elements, good solid biomechanics are present. It was no magic. It was the best interpretation of someone who truly understood the basic principles of what he was doing. Sheer beauty.

(notice how well he is staying out his opponent’s center)

This should apply to everything we do: self defense, martial arts, work, and life. If you can find and understand the true fundamental principles that guides what you are doing, you will be able to improvise, flow, adapt.Taking a step back to move forward. By taking a step back you are allowed to see the big picture, to visualize the road map. When you know where you are and where you have to go, let’s say from point A to Point B, you don’t need to focus on every steps on the way there. You can take the focus off your feet and onto the horizon, where they belong.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

‎"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts.... We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."-Charles R. Swindoll

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

There are criminals that prey upon apartment complexes and condominium units:• They know that many females and senior citizens live in these complexes• Most persons who are arrested for crimes against property are males between 18 –21 years old• They frequently live nearby their target areas and are familiar with the neighborhood• They work the area on foot most frequently• They may have lived in the complex or have a friend that lives in the complex

What to do to protect yourself:• Keep your doors locked at all times• Keep you car keys and apartment/condo keys separate when giving car keys to valet parking ora service attendant• Don’t allow strangers in a secure building at any time• When driving into an underground parking unit, stop at the entrance to make sure the doorcloses before proceeding to park your car – call 911 or security, if someone tries to sneak in• Get to know your neighbors and the management well – organize a Neighborhood CrimeWatch by contacting local law enforcement• Report any lighting that is not working in the hallways, stairwells, and garage/parking areas• If trees or shrubs are near the doors or walkways block your vision of the area, ask themanagement to prune them for clear vision• When getting on an elevator always stand by the floor buttons to exit immediately if you have to• Never get on an elevator if you feel uncomfortable or have strange feeling about someonealready on the elevator

There are criminals that prey upon apartment complexes and condominium units:

• They know that many females and senior citizens live in these complexes• Most persons who are arrested for crimes against property are males between 18 –21 years old• They frequently live nearby their target areas and are familiar with the neighborhood• They work the area on foot most frequently• They may have lived in the complex or have a friend that lives in the complex

What to do to protect yourself:• Keep your doors locked at all times• Keep you car keys and apartment/condo keys separate when giving car keys to valet parking ora service attendant• Don’t allow strangers in a secure building at any time• When driving into an underground parking unit, stop at the entrance to make sure the doorcloses before proceeding to park your car – call 911 or security, if someone tries to sneak in• Get to know your neighbors and the management well – organize a Neighborhood CrimeWatch by contacting local law enforcement• Report any lighting that is not working in the hallways, stairwells, and garage/parking areas• If trees or shrubs are near the doors or walkways block your vision of the area, ask themanagement to prune them for clear vision• When getting on an elevator always stand by the floor buttons to exit immediately if you have to• Never get on an elevator if you feel uncomfortable or have strange feeling about someonealready on the elevator

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Seems silly when you look at this photo because it is so obvious to see it this way. But how many times have we been this little boy, when things are right there in front of our nose or sitting on top of our head and we don’t see them. Now is it inattention on his part or is it that to him it is such an impossible thing to have a bird sit on his head that he cannot see it.

It is easy to not see what we don’t want to see or what we don’t understand. The brain is very much like a computer. It can only use the programs that you have uploaded into it. Your eyes do not see, your brain does.

I think we have all been there when you get so scared that you swore you “saw” something and in reality nothing was there or something completely different than what you saw was actually in play. And the reverse is also true, something was there and you never saw it.

“But I never saw that car driving right toward me, that’s why I pulled out at the intersection”

Your brain may have preconceived notions on what “reality” is. Like I said before, your brain can only work with the program it was enabled with.

Where am I going with this? You need to program your brain properly. Let’s discuss this topic regarding self defense, since this is a SD blog. A good way to “program” your brain is to open it to new knowledge. GOOD reality based scenarios will really help doing this. You are introducing your brain to “Wow, this can really happen” or “this is what violence looks like/ feels like/ sounds like” or “so when a potential predator says/ does this, it means I could be in danger?”. Your brain will be filing this information for later use. It might make it easier for you to recognize a potentially violent situation and avoid it before you find yourself knee deep in doodoo.

But if your brain is unaware of what violence looks like (I am NOT talking about Hollywood violence here), it may not be able to recognize in time to save your hide. If you don’t take time to understand danger signals, bad behaviors, potentially dangerous situations, your brain will not perceive them as reality.

Your beliefs also work into perceiving the things you do and say. You might think you meant something when it might come across a totally different way to another person since his perception and beliefs are different than yours. This is especially true when you come across people from different cultures and backgrounds.

So remember, good input = good output. If you program yourself with garbage, don’t expect to produce gold and diamonds. If you want to prevent yourself from experiencing violence, you will have to understand what you are trying to avoid in the first place.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

I was reviewing the home invasion RBS drill we did last week. I was more specifically watching the video of me finding an intruder hiding in my closet that came out jumping at me. I used my knife (I always carry one with me) to slice his throat open. Killed on the spot. End of threat. Lise is safe. Scenario successful

Now looking back, my analytical brain is taking over. I can see that he was not armed. Maybe he was hiding because he got scared I would find him. Maybe he is just a young kid doing stupid things out on a dare or out of desperation. Did I need to kill him? Could I have run away? Could I have controlled him without killing him? Those are valid points. They are easy questions to ask when you are sitting down over a cup of coffee and analyzing step by step.

At the time when I was in the middle of the action, I only had fraction of seconds to analyze, decide and react. The facts were: someone broke into my house; my daughter was home alone at the time I had left.

Possibilities:

1.My daughter stepped out for something and forgot the door open

2.A friend of my daughter just walked in to see her and forgot the door open

3.Someone my daughter knows came in to pick a fight with her

4.Simple robbery: some guy came in , robbed the place and left and my daughter never even knew

5.Simple robbery that went bad. My daughter got hurt or killed

6.Break in with intent to rape, kill or kidnap my daughter

I could not live with choices 5 or 6.

When I found that someone unknown to me was hiding in my closet it pretty much precluded the notion that this was a friendly. No one who knows me would purposely do this. The choices got narrowed down between #4, 5 or 6.

This whole thing started to play in my head the minute I came home and found my door open. I could not see anyone and this was very suspicious. The best response to this would be to get out of there and call the authorities. But the scenario was that my daughter was in there alone and I feared for her life. So I called the cops and then I went in. I was in code Orange. This was highly suspicious as I knew my daughter would never forget the door open this way. I cleared the rooms properly (Kasey taught me well ;-p). This gave me a chance to not be totally taken by surprise or assaulted with a rear attack. When I cleared the closet he was hiding in, he came out jumping at me. This was not a fearful teenager caught with his hand in the cookie jar. This was a large man who would rather kill than be killed. He messed with the wrong woman. I was mentally and physically ready to defend myself and protect my family. If I had not killed him I had no doubt he would do horrible things to me.

This is where good training comes in. I was mentally ready because we had many times discussed situations like this. My life or his?? Mine…. without a shadow of a doubt. Having trained under stress, where a man attacks me with anger and violence helped the mental freeze. Kasey mentioned this before, training against ‘chi”. We’ll discuss this again later. But this is VERY important for females to know what this feels like.

Being able to do quick threat assessment is also invaluable. It saves precious minutes. And if he would have been attacking my daughter at the time, those precious minutes might have saved her life.

At the time, I had no hesitation at killing him. Looking back on it, even if this was a RBS, killing a man is not something I take lightly. I highly value life. Did I make the right decision? I am at peace that I did, and I would make the same choice again faced with similar situation. Someone who breaks into my house and hides does not have peaceful intentions. He knows what he is doing and he chose to die when he chose to enter MY house, unannounced and uninvited.

Now YOU need to think about situations like this ahead of time. Make your peace and your choices ahead of time. You don’t want to choose on the spot, you will most likely freeze. If you cannot live with the idea of killing someone, then choose another alternative ahead of time. And the one where you die is NOT a good alternative. I personally could not have lived with myself if I had sat on the sidelines waiting for the police to arrive while my daughter was possibly getting raped or killed. But that’s me. This choice is yours to make. Don’t let anyone talk you into doing something you can’t live with.

I have dealt with my seconds thoughts. Had I not, it would create an hesitation if this would happen for real. And hesitation can mean life or death.

The most important thing to take away from this: BE READY. In the middle of an attack is NOT the time to decide on what you can do physically AND morally. This has to be decided ahead of time. Don’t live in fear but know what the options are and what the consequences are.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.

2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the backwindow to make my return a little easier.

3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste... and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leaveout always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.

4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long ittakes you to remove it.

5. If it snows while you're out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are adead giveaway.

6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don't let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it's set. Thatmakes it too easy.

7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the masterbedroom - and your jewelry. It's not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.

8. It's raining, you're fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door - understandable. But understand this: I don't take aday off because of bad weather.

9. I always knock first. If you answer, I'll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don't take me up on it.)

10. Do you really think I won't look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.

11. Here's a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids' rooms.

12. You're right: I won't have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it's not bolted down, I'll take it with me.

13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you're reluctant to leave your TV on while you're out of town,you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. (Find it athttp://www.faketv.com/)

14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook.

15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.

16. I'll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he'll stop what he's doing and waitto hear it again... If he doesn't hear it again, he'll just go back to what he was doing. It's human nature.

17. I'm not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?

18. I love looking in your windows. I'm looking for signs that you're home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I'd like. I'll drive or walkthrough your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.